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Holiday-makers in Tonga describe cyclone impact

Rob SharpUpdated
Wed Jan 15 14:10:00 EST 2014

Four Australians holidaying in Tonga say they took shelter in a makeshift bunker when Cyclone Ian battered the Pacific Kingdom at the weekend. Tasmanian Rob Hortle, his girlfriend and parents were on Lifuka in the Ha'aipai group of islands. Mr Hortle says they were in a two-storey guesthouse when Cyclone Ian roared through.

Transcript

BRENDAN TREMBATH: Four Australians holidaying in Tonga have described how they took shelter in a makeshift bunker when Cyclone Ian battered the Pacific Kingdom at the weekend.

Tasmanian Rob Hortle, his girlfriend and parents were on Lifuka in the Ha'aipai group of islands.

Mr Hortle says they were in a two storey guest house when Cyclone Ian roared through.

He spoke to Rob Sharp.

ROB HORTLE: I was over here for a holiday with my girlfriend and my parents. We were revisiting some friends on the island of Lifuka where we used to live from 1996 to 1998. So back to see the old island and see how things had changed there.

ROB SHARP: What happened, basically, when the storm came through? What did you do?

ROB HORTLE: Early on the Satuday morning, about three in the morning, the rain and wind started and steadily built throughout the day until it hit about midday, early afternoon. We stayed upstairs at our two-storey guest house for as long as we could, but then eventually when things got a bit strong, we moved downstairs to sort of... almost like a bunker, I suppose. And, yeah, stayed inside under the most solid part of the roof, which had a couple of concrete beams and watched everything get devastated outside.

ROB SHARP: Obviously it would have been devastating to witness such an event. Did you fear for your own safety at the time?

ROB HORTLE: I think most of the time we were pretty confident in the building that we were in. We all held up remarkably well, I think. The most awful aspect of it, I guess, was coming out afterwards and seeing all the destruction and realising that the real emergency wasn't the cyclone itself but it's the months and years, I guess, that'll follow for the island, because everything really has been flattened and the people have got such a massive struggle in front of them.

ROB SHARP: Have you spoken to some of the locals there about how they will be rebuilding their lives?

ROB HORTLE: Yeah, yeah, we had a lot of friends left on the island, a lot of friends who've lost their houses and, I dunno, I guess they're a pretty resilient people. They're looking forward to rebuilding and getting the basic services back as quickly as possible, but... yeah, there's also definitely a sense that there's going to be a lot of assistance needed.

ROB SHARP: That's the theme I guess, Rob, that we are hearing, that they are very resilient people there. A theme that obviously resonates across the Pacific, because they've been through all these sorts of cyclones before, and somehow they always manage to rebuild. So I guess that's the plan of action for them over there at the moment?

ROB HORTLE: Yeah, it is. I guess the only thing to say about that is that they've gotta rebuild well if we wanna make sure that things like this don't happen in future, that they are better prepared. So, yeah, all of us who were there really hoping that the Australian Government's going to pitch in and help out as the New Zealand government has said they will already, just to make sure that the rebuild is a really good one.

ROB SHARP: We're hearing reports that 500 tents have been distributed to those in accommodation centres across Ha'apai and other areas affected by the huge storm. How will that help, do you think?

ROB HORTLE: Yeah, I think obviously tents are going to be quite important for a few people, but most of the people there, you know, the family ties are really strong, so if people have lost their houses they'll be staying with relatives. And also at this time of year it's the rainy season, so living in a tent's really, really not a lot of fun. I think there are probably other things that are more useful... getting the phone reception back up, which they've done already, getting the power back online, which is probably going to take between one and three months minimum, and food and fresh water are going to be quite important. Another thing we heard is that the food emergency's probably going to not happen perhaps for another year and a half or so, because they've got food to last until then, but by that time you'll reach the point where the crops that would have been growing now aren't available for use anymore. So yeah, it's definitely a long-term issue that's going to have to be managed.

ROB SHARP: How long do you plan to stay there on Tonga?

ROB HORTLE: Well, we made it out of Ha'apai yesterday morning on a chartered flight and we're back in Tongatapu, the capital, now. We're flying back to Australia on Thursday, which was always our plan. We were close to the end of our holiday already. Yeah, it was hard to leave. We wanted to stay and help, but we felt like we were more of a drain on the resources of the locals there and didn't really have skills to assist.